Man And Wraith
by tielan
Summary: John doesn't like Michael Kenmore. He doesn't show it, but it's there. [SPOILERS for episode 2.18 'Michael']


**NOTES**: For the John/Teyla fanfic100 challenge - prompt 'She'.**  
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**Man and Wraith**

At first, John thinks his edginess about Michael Kenmore is because the man started out as a Wraith.

He's more in control of it than Ronon, who dislikes Kenmore and makes no bones about it. Ronon's suffered too much at the hands of the Wraith to forgive or forget. John understands why his team-mate won't play nice - that doesn't mean that Ronon is going to get away with being rude.

John considers it more worrying that Kenmore immediately latches onto Teyla as a friend. It's got nothing to do with any concern about Teyla's loyalties and everything to do with the fact that Kenmore was once a Wraith.

Then Teyla starts spending her time with Kenmore.

--

He catches her on her way to the gym. "Be careful around him."

In an attempt to make Kenmore more comfortable with himself, she's going to show him some basic fighting moves under the guise of physical reconditioning. Ronon objected, of course. Elizabeth overruled him - of course. John isn't happy about it, but he suggests Ronon keep a quiet eye on the situation.

Her eyes are grave and slightly wary as she looks back at him. The moment stretches out before she says, "Colonel, he knows no-one else in this city. He truly has no friends - only enemies, like Ronon."

John still isn't happy about it. "I'm not comfortable with you spending so much time with him."

It's the wrong thing to say. Her expression grows cold. "This is not about your comfort, Colonel."

--

She teaches Kenmore fighting, and only laughs when he pins her.

She sits and talks with him, and offers him advice and a listening ear.

She calls him 'Michael', and touches his arm affectionately as she leaves for another meeting about Kenmore's progress.

From the viewscreens that monitor Kenmore's every move, John observes the 'man' watch her as she goes. He observes the way Kenmore waits until she's out of sight before turning away and feels an intense antipathy to the Wraith-turned-human. He squashes it as fast as it rises - but it rises faster than he expects, like Atlantis submerged, pushing up into his consciousness.

He knows why he doesn't like Kenmore. He just doesn't want to admit it.

--

"Colonel?"

The man catches up to him in one of the corridors, and John fixes a polite smile on his face and doesn't tense. "Lieutenant. How are things?"

"Good." Kenmore hesitates. "Sir?"

"Lieutenant?"

"About Teyla. Is she...does she have a lover?"

John stops. Actually, it's not a conscious decision: his legs act without consulting his brain. He's careful not to let his fists do the same. "Why?"

Whatever Kenmore is, he's not a coward. "I feel a connection with her. More than anyone else in the city. And...I haven't asked - I don't know. She's...different."

He couldn't agree more. But integrating Kenmore into Atlantis is one thing - John can deal with that, even if he's not totally happy about it. However, that kind of 'relational development' will take place over John's dead body.

"You're not lovers," John says flatly. There are so many kinds of wrong about Teyla and Kenmore that he doesn't know where to begin.

"But she doesn't have one, either." Kenmore's watching him, and John would like to lie, but he can't. Teyla would quickly deny it, anyway, then come looking for him with her fist.

"No."

--

John can shunt his dislike of Kenmore away to the side when looking at the man as an experiment.

Kenmore's discovery of what he used to be wasn't in the plan, but the best-laid plans can fly out the window in the initial seconds of engagement.

In the end, John suggests upping the dosage of the drug.

They've gone this far and it worked, maybe more of what fixed it the first time will give them a clean slate again. After all, the Wraith is now human - something they never thought they'd see - and they have to work out a way to deploy this as a weapon against the Wraith.

Genocide is always an option, but John's not averse to looking at the alternatives.

It's harder to take Teyla's query about starting the lies over again. He didn't expect full agreement from her, but she wields her question like she does her staves - no hesitation, no mercy.

Then Kenmore tries to escape, killing Sergeant Cole in the process.

And they start planning to get him the hell out of Atlantis before he brings the Wraith down on them.

--

He's speaking with one of the Marine sergeants about the transfer when Teyla comes looking for him. She waits until he's done, but she looks serious. "He wishes to speak with you." No name, just the pronoun.

John goes for several reasons. One of them is that he's almost hoping Kenmore will give him an excuse to kill him. Killing him would feel good.

While the experiment was working, he could deal with the man for the sake of the possibilities: no more fighting the Wraith, peace for the Pegasus galaxy at last. Now that Sergeant Cole's dead, it's a very different matter.

He wants blood, and if Kenmore's willing to give him a chance to shed it...

The pale eyes look back at him from behind the cell bars. "Colonel."

"Lieutenant."

That much brings a flinch. "I'm sorry about the dead man." There's a harshness to Kenmore's voice - and a tension like a stand-off, waiting to happen.

"Sorry won't bring him back." Killing Kenmore won't bring Cole back, either, but it might make John feel a little better.

Kenmore's expression grows hard. "And sorry won't give back what you took from me," he says. In that moment, John sees what Ronon always saw when he looked at this 'man': the Wraith looking out of eyes that only veiled his nature.

"Then it's just as well we're not going to apologise for it," John says coolly. "You'd have done the same in our position."

Silence between them. Then, Kenmore speaks, the almost-handsome face aloof and measuring. "You should never have let me near her."

Once again, no name, only the pronoun that says too much. "On that," says John carefully, "I think we can agree."

--

She's more useful as a hostage until Kenmore gets off-planet; after that, she's food.

John's brain knows that. His body continues to pump adrenaline into his system, drowning his fear in the need to take action. He scrambles up the ridge, ignoring the fact that Bravo team are already on it. To hell with sitting back and waiting. This is _Teyla_ in the hands of a man - a Wraith - who's already killed one of John's people.

_Shouldn't have left her alone with him. Especially not after what happened before the siege._

Hindsight is inevitably perfect.

Bravo team is good, but John and Ronon have a greater need to find Teyla. The other men are easily outpaced. Besides, John has Ronon to track Kenmore; that makes a difference. It just doesn't make enough of a difference to save Teyla.

They sprint for the Stargate, but Kenmore drags her through.

Fear grips him hard, but John pushes it to the side as he eyes the DHD. What will they need to get the last-dialled address out? Rodney, for sure. Nobody else could do it, but if it can be done, Rodney can do it. Maybe he makes fun of the scientist, but the other man _is_ good. Possibly even as good as he likes to believe he is.

Then Ronon points out the address Teyla marked down on a piece of slate.

Damn, she's good.

John radios Bravo team about the two marines down, but asks for two guys to back him and Ronon up. He's not going to go in half-assed and get shot down for his pains. They have no idea where Kenmore took her, after all.

He just hopes it's not another interim planet.

They try several combinations based on the position of the symbols she inscribed, and get it on the seventh go. Seven is a lucky number after all.

The marines are left at the gate to mind it. John would feel sorry for them if he weren't so worried about Teyla. It's coming on nightfall on this planet, and it'll be harder to track them in the dark. Thankfully, Ronon's up to it.

Ronon stumbles as he vaults a tree, so John reaches the clearing first. He's pulling his sidearm even as Kenmore reaches out one hand to Teyla's chest then...withdraws it?

John doesn't ask why. He fires at Kenmore, a hail of bullets that stop the Wraith from feeding on Teyla.

Their escape is narrow and brutal.

At least there aren't any qualms about killing these Wraith.

--

"Well, it doesn't look like Michael had the chance to feed on her," says Carson after checking Teyla over.

Teyla rubs her forearms and regards John with exasperation. "I said he had no opportunity to feed."

"Because we got there first," he snaps. "And what were you doing, standing still while he tried to feed off you?"

"He was not wholly Wraith," she insisted. "I believed he would choose not to feed."

"Yeah, well, you were wrong," John says. He's angry - angrier when he thinks of her standing there while Kenmore drained her life-force - and there are other emotions, darker, more dangerous ones that push at him, like the pressure of the water against the shield that held the sea back from Atlantis for thousands of years. "You nearly died."

"I did not."

Carson huffed and turned away. "Colonel, you don't need me here for this. Teyla, I recommend rest - as soon as you can take it."

"As I recommend to you, Dr. Beckett," she says. "You have not properly rested in several days."

His smile is brief and bitter, and with a glance at John, he leaves to do a round of his patients before the debriefing Elizabeth's called to discuss the matter.

"Colonel?" Teyla seems surprised that he's still here.

John just lets his eyes rest on her face for a long moment, reading her confusion and her defensiveness. There are too many things he wants to say and none of them should be said now. Finally, he just says, "Go clean up. I'll see you at the debriefing."

She goes with more docility than he expects and he watches her leave - like Kenmore did.

For a moment, he feels something close to kinship with the Wraith-turned-man-turned-Wraith.

Then he casts it away.

- **fin** -


End file.
